Chapter Text
The first time Floyd kisses Riddle’s hand is when they’re together in his room; with the mer lying around impatiently while the redhead meticulously goes through his work.
Riddle feels the bed shift slightly as Floyd starts to fidget restlessly again from where he’s sprawled out on the bed. “Goldfishie,” he whines, voice partially muffled. “When are ya gonna be done?? I’m bored of waitin’.” It’s already the twentieth time that he’s complained over the span of the past five minutes.
He doesn’t pause in his work, continuing to fill in the paperwork in his hands. “I still have to fill in a few more documents regarding Heartslabyul internal matters, not to mention some incomplete assignments I absolutely must finish as soon as possible.”
As expected, Floyd lets out a groan at that. “Whaaat? That’s so borin’. Can’t you do that later? I wanna play with Goldfishie now!”
Hearing his complaints, Riddle releases a sigh as he stops writing, turning around to face a pouting Floyd with an exasperated frown. “That’s out of the question — absolutely not! It would be incredibly irresponsible of me to drop all my work just to entertain you! As the Housewarden of Heartslabyul, I should lead by example and show my card soldiers that work should not be procrastinated on!” he chides, jabbing his pen in Floyd’s direction to emphasise his points.
Floyd opens his mouth to protest again, but as if right on cue, the sound of a phone buzzing echoes throughout the room — definitely Floyd’s phone, since his own is on Do Not Disturb mode. While he’s temporarily distracted, Riddle takes the chance to immediately turn back to his work before he’s interrupted once more.
Despite him genuinely appreciating Floyd hanging out with him more often since they became closer friends, having him around now is only proving to be a huge distraction. If it was anyone else, he would have them out of his room at this point of time. But he doesn’t have the heart to do the same for the eel; curse him for being stupidly infatuated with this stupid eel.
Silence temporarily befalls upon the two of them, the only audible sound being Riddle’s scribbling on the paperwork in his hands. But as expected, the silence obviously doesn’t last for long, with Floyd cutting through it sharply with another groan.
“Jade said I got a shift at the Lounge soon. Gotta go or ‘Zul’s gonna be real mad at me, and I ain’t in the mood to deal with that.” He punctuates that point by carelessly tossing his phone off to the side.
Riddle looks up from writing to watch Floyd take his own sweet time to get out of the bed, stretching and mumbling complaints about how he’s ‘not in the mood to work’ and the like.
After observing him continue in this fashion for the next minute or so, Riddle can’t help but comment, “Floyd, you’d best get going as soon as possible. It would be extremely imprudent and unprofessional of you to turn up late to your shift. You know as well as I do that Azul will nag at you nonstop if you aren’t there in time, and he’d only consume more of your time in doing so.”
That seems to do the trick, as Floyd instantly jumps out of bed as if he’s been burnt, grabbing his phone on the way. “Eugh, I’on wanna go… Jade’s supposed to work today anyway — why does he gotta hang out with Sea Turtle-kun and make me cover for ‘em? Hope he does somethin’ stupid in front of Sea Turtle-kun so I can make fun of ‘em later…” Despite his persistent grumbling, he’s already bending down to shove his shoes on while muttering what sounds like curses in his merfolk-native language under his breath — Riddle’s confident that he heard Jade’s name mentioned numerous times in the process.
He sets his paperwork aside. “...Just this once, I will permit you to come back here after your shift, if you wish to do so.” Without thinking, he leans forward and gently pats Floyd’s head. He catches himself a second too late, hastily retracting his hand and forcing it onto his lap, his face already heating up.
Floyd instantaneously reacts to that, his lips curling upwards into a bright grin as he pulls Riddle off the bed into a tight embrace, wrapping his arms around the redhead’s waist. Riddle involuntarily lets out a squeak when he starts to spin the both of them around. “Ehe, Goldfishie’s the cutest! Ain’t ya bold today, hmm~?” he teases, spirits clearly uplifted. “But since Goldfishie insists so badly, I guess I’ll be back later~”
“Floyd Leech! Cease this tomfoolery at once! And put me down right this instant, or it’s Off With Your Head!!” Riddle admonishes him as he squirms in his hold, giving Floyd a glare with no genuine anger behind it.
For once, Floyd listens to him, laughing away as he pulls away from the embrace, the loss of contact from him causing Riddle to feel slightly disappointed despite himself. “Ehe, Goldfishie’s so fun today~ Can’t wait to come back and play with you more later!”
He saunters over to grab his hat from where it was resting on Riddle’s desk, half-heartedly adjusting its position on his head. Once the mer is ready to leave, he turns back to Riddle with a softer smile, one that sends his heart aflutter.
“Bye, Goldfishie~ See you later,” Floyd whispers, gently taking Riddle’s hand and pressing a soft kiss onto the back of it. Riddle’s eyes widen in shock as his breath hitches, his face blooming into a rosy red.
Floyd pulls away quickly, seeming almost flustered by his action for a fraction of a second judging by the way his cheeks are dusted with pink. However, he’s back to his normal self soon enough, smile growing wider as he waves excitedly at Riddle while heading out of his room.
Riddle can only wordlessly wave back, still completely bewildered and rendered completely speechless. His mind is still processing both the kiss on his hand and Floyd’s expression. Was Floyd actually embarrassed there? Or was it perhaps simply just his imagination? He’s never seen the mer so flustered before. It’s quite endearing to see such a look on his face.
And the random kiss on his hand? Riddle can’t make heads or tails out of it. Floyd has never been so bold to go up to him and kiss his hand before. If he’d been in the right headspace — or rather, if it was someone else other than Floyd who had done so — he would have instantly collared them for their actions, kicking them out of his room straight after. Maybe he really is getting all together too comfortable around Floyd for the eel to be so bold to do such a thing…
He picks up his paperwork and pen, setting them down on his desk while trying to force his train of thoughts to come to a halt. In spite of his attempts, his mind drifts right back to Floyd and that random kiss on the hand. Surely it must be nothing, and that he’s purely overthinking matters. Perhaps another one of Floyd’s meaningless antics meant to jest him once again. Or something he did purely based on his mood, knowing how the eel frequently and impulsively acts based on his current mood.
Somehow, the thought of those possibilities causes a frown to make its way onto Riddle’s face.
Well it wasn’t that he disliked the gesture at all — rather the opposite as a matter of fact. How would Cater describe it… Feeding into his delusions? Something along those lines. He shakes his head at himself, massaging his temples in exasperation. He’s been acting just as badly as a high school girl with a puppy crush when it comes to Floyd these days…
But he can’t help it. He really does treasure his friendship with Floyd, and how he can just let his guard down around him. Everything he does somehow allows him to fall for him even more. From the bright grins he gives him, to the briefest of moments they spend together before being forced to part ways. He’s even found Floyd’s silly antics that cause him to get into trouble half the time somewhat endearing now — something that even he is rather dumbfounded by. Riddle basks in it all, soaking up and cherishing every single second spent together with the mer.
He isn’t sure what exactly about Floyd draws him towards him like a moth towards a flame. Then again, does the reason for it really matter? He’s just content with having him in his life, acting as a constant source of light in his universe.
His thoughts come to a temporary standstill at that, a red blush spreading across his face. Just how cheesy can he get at this point? He’d surely be made fun of for the rest of his life should Floyd be able to hear his thoughts. He sighs to himself. He’s getting off track — he really should get back to work promptly.
“That Floyd,” Riddle mutters aloud as he takes a seat by his desk. “Distracting me once again when he isn’t even physically present…”
He knows he should stop neglecting his work and return to it at once, but he allows himself to indulge in his thoughts on Floyd for a little while longer. To be frank, he’s still subconsciously hung up over that kiss on his hand, and his mind drifts back to it. He absentmindedly twirls his pen around in his hand, using his other hand to prop his chin up as he replays the incident in his head repeatedly.
For the briefest of moments, Riddle wonders if Floyd has figured out about his crush on him. He wonders if the mer finds it rather amusing, another thing to poke fun at him about. He wonders if him kissing his hand was just a way to mess with his feelings.
He banishes the idea of it almost immediately. Floyd isn’t the sort of person to do such a thing. Despite his love for pranks and poking fun at others, he would never go so far as to play with someone’s true feelings in such a cruel manner — or at least, he wouldn’t do that to Riddle specifically. He knows Floyd genuinely does care about him, or at least he wants to believe that he does. After all, they’re close friends now, and he’s slowly learning how to be more open and trusting towards the mer.
Realistically, on the off chance that Floyd does know about his feelings for him, he’d actually just be blunt and tell him right to his face in the first place. That sounds more like what he would do indeed.
That still doesn’t quite explain Floyd’s intentions behind kissing his hand at random, just more so ruling out a possibility as to why he did so. It’s certainly not like him at all to act like the perfect image of a gentleman. He’s definitely more of the… chaotic type, someone that doesn’t care about manners and the like, that’s for certain. Besides, this appears to be a one-time thing, just between the two of them. It’d be both amusing yet scary to see Floyd going around kissing the hands of the entire student body, and Riddle’s relieved that that isn’t the case.
Maybe it truly was something he did out of impulsiveness, or because he simply felt like doing so at that moment. Both options appear much more reminiscent of Floyd than of him trying to be a gentleman out of nowhere. Really, it’s very likely that he’s only overthinking it. It’s more than likely just Floyd being Floyd with his typical shenanigans as per usual. He shouldn’t get all hung-up over something as small as that.
Well, it would do him no good to waste any more of his time pondering over it. He should resume his work immediately, before Floyd gets back and steals his attention away again. Riddle forces away any more thoughts on the matter and turns back to the paperwork on his desk, pushing himself to remain focused on the task at hand.
But even with his best efforts, he still isn’t able to dispel the memory of Floyd kissing the back of his hand from his mind. It just refuses to leave no matter what he does to try to forget about it.
And when Floyd barges into his room again later in the day, the thought is still stubbornly lingering in the back of Riddle’s mind.
Truly, what a nuisance.